Fragrance free, unscented, and the difference nobody explains

By Therapium

Two words on two boxes, meaning two different things, and neither of them is defined by law. "Unscented" can legitimately be printed on a product that contains a fragrance. "Fragrance free" usually cannot — but there is nothing stopping it either.

Fortunately, EU law regulates something better than the words: it regulates the ingredient list. Once you know what to look at, the front of the box stops mattering.

What the two words normally mean

Fragrance free means, as most brands use it, that nothing was added to the formula for the purpose of giving it a smell.

Unscented means the finished product does not smell of anything in particular — which is a statement about the result, not about the contents. Raw materials smell. Plant oils smell nutty, some surfactants smell sharp, some actives smell faintly of fish. A very common way to make a product not smell of those things is to add a small amount of fragrance whose only job is to cover them. It is called a masking fragrance, and it is exactly what someone avoiding fragrance is trying to avoid.

So "unscented" is the weaker of the two, and it is weaker in precisely the direction that matters.

Neither one is defined in EU law

Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 does not define "fragrance free" or "unscented". No EU cosmetics instrument does.

What does apply is Regulation (EU) No 655/2013, which sets six common criteria every cosmetic claim must meet — including truthfulness and evidential support. A brand printing "fragrance free" on a product containing a masking fragrance would be making a claim it cannot substantiate. That is the safeguard: not a definition, but an obligation not to mislead.

The check that settles it

Article 19 of the same Regulation requires the full ingredient list in INCI names on every cosmetic sold in the EU. Fragrance appears on that list as one word:

Parfum — or Aroma, when it is there for taste rather than smell, as in a lip product.

That is it. If Parfum is on the list, the product contains a fragrance composition, whatever the front of the box says and whatever you can or cannot smell. If it is not on the list, it does not.

Thirty seconds, no trust required.

Three things that complicate it

1. Essential oils are fragrance

An oil put in for its scent is a fragrance ingredient, whether it is declared inside Parfum or named individually as, say, Citrus Aurantium Bergamia Peel Oil. "Fragranced only with essential oils" is a statement about the source, not about whether there is fragrance. Essential oils are also, as a group, richer in the allergens listed below than synthetic fragrance often is.

2. Individually named allergens

Certain fragrance components must be named separately rather than hidden inside Parfum. Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 expanded that list from 26 substances to more than 80. Products newly placed on the EU market have had to comply since 31 July 2026; products already on shelves have until 31 July 2028, so labels will disagree with each other for a while yet.

Names to recognise: Limonene, Linalool, Citral, Geraniol, Citronellol, Coumarin, Eugenol, Benzyl Alcohol, Benzyl Salicylate. Seeing several of them with no Parfum above them usually means the scent is coming from named essential oils rather than a fragrance blend.

3. A single fragrance material, named on its own

This is the honest edge case. A formula can contain one aroma chemical — vanillin, for example — declared by its own name with no Parfum anywhere. Strictly, that product is not fragrance free, even though the usual check would pass it.

Our own TENERIS™ Baby Foaming Wash is exactly this case: no Parfum on the list, and a trace of vanillin at the end of it. We say so on the product page rather than rounding it up to "fragrance free", because a parent choosing a baby wash on that basis deserves the precise answer.

Does it actually matter?

For most people, not much. Fragrance is the single most common cause of contact allergy in cosmetics, but most skin tolerates it perfectly well, and a scent you enjoy is a real reason to keep using a product — the sunscreen you like the smell of is the one you actually reapply.

It matters if your skin reacts, if you have eczema or rosacea, if you are choosing for an infant, or if you are trying to work out which of six products caused a flare. In that last case, removing fragrance first is the highest-yield single change you can make, because it removes the most likely culprit and the one that is doing the least work.

Where we stand

Genuinely fragrance free across our range — no Parfum and no declared allergens:

Most of the rest of the range is fragranced, and we do not dress that up. Every product page carries the complete INCI list in order, and the Scent section says plainly whether there is a fragrance and what it smells like — including the pages where the honest answer is "lightly scented". The sensitive skin collection is where the fragrance-free formulas sit together.

General information about cosmetic labelling, not medical advice.